Should you offer your employees the opportunity for a hybrid work schedule? Is it time to go fully remote? Or should you bring everyone back to the office?
Many companies find themselves still debating whether it is best for their business for employees to work remotely, fully in-office, or a hybrid of the two. The pandemic forced a shift in the way companies operate, in many cases, towards remote work. As we have returned to our daily routines, companies have struggled to evaluate the cost of each.
Some companies found it more beneficial to remain completely remote, others chose to mandate everyone to resume fully in-person activities, but a fairly popular choice for both executives and their employees has been to adopt a hybrid schedule – one where employees can choose to be remote on certain days and in-person on others.
According to a recent article from Forbes, 62% of workers are in the office full-time, 27% are fully hybrid, and 11% are fully remote. These numbers represent a shift from the office to remote work. While every company has approached this differently, as we start a new year, we can still see where many companies are still struggling to find the balance that is right for them.
A recent study conducted by leading Standford economist, Nicholas Bloom, analyzed the effects of hybrid work on employee’s productivity and their likelihood of being promoted while on this schedule. Bloom along with Ruobing Han, an assistant professor at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and James Liang, an economic professor at Peking University and co-founder of Trip.com, used employees from Trip.com, to conduct a randomized controlled trial, splitting employees into two groups: people with an odd-numbered birthday would be asked to come into the office three days a week, allowing them to work remotely for the other two, while employees with an even-numbered birthday were required to come into the office all five days of the week. This lasted for 6 months while the authors gathered data.
When analyzing the results, Bloom and others considered both the quality of work and the amount produced. Even while taking these into consideration, the clear winner was the workers on a hybrid schedule. Bloom notes that not only were the hybrid employees equally or more productive than their fully in-person counterparts, but they also excelled at achieving higher retention rates, boosting productivity, and increasing performance.
Bloom notes that a common misconception, especially due to the large boom of hybrid and remote work after the pandemic started, is simply the confusion between the two schedules. He notes that hybrid and remote work are often meshed into one definition, falling under the fully remote umbrella. He observed that this confusion has fallen over into studies being conducted with the terms used loosely or interchangeably.
Bloom’s study provides vital information to consider when determining which schedule would be best for a company. It can be confusing to read things on the internet about which type of work is best, and with such a large decision, it is important to understand the pros and cons, with tangible evidence to support each type. This study offers exactly that: a wide scale, long-term study on a franchise with a randomized trial and diverse sample pool. This study, along with others, can help to better inform companies about what is best for their employees and them on a long-term scale.
As you evaluate what is best for your business, we encourage you to consider what deliverables you could use to evaluate the productivity of your employees to find the right balance for your team. We also encourage you to keep in mind employee job satisfaction, work-life balance, and stress level. There is no doubt that employee turnover costs companies money. Therefore, it’s important to look at the long term approach for your business. What schedule allows your employees to perform at their optimum level without burning out while still maintaining your corporate culture?
If your team needs someone to help advise you on how to evaluate what is best for your unique needs, we would love to help. Reach out today to see how we might partner with you!
